Many compression standards have been developed and evolved for the efficient use of storage and/or transmission resources. Among these standards is the audio coding scheme MPEG I/II Layer-3 (conventionally referred to as “MP3”), which has been a popular audio coding method since its inception in 1991. MP3 has greatly facilitated the storage and access of audio files. MP3 is now widely used in the Internet, portable audio devices and wireless communications.
An example MP3 encoder is LAME, which refers to “LAME Ain't an Mp3 Encoder”, as is known in the art. Another MP3 encoder is ISO reference codec, which is based on the ISO standard. Generally, such MP3 encoders include use of two nested loop search (TNLS) algorithms, which are computationally complex and may not be guaranteed to converge. These encoders may be configured or operated to provide for additional functionality and customization.
Generally, although the encoding algorithm is not standardized in MP3, the basic structure and syntax-related tools are fixed so that the MP3 encoded/compressed bitstreams can be correctly decoded by any standard compatible decoder. However, there may be opportunities to manipulate the encoding algorithm while maintaining full decoder compatibility.